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UNMC lays out preparedness plan

Nebraska Medicine and the University of Nebraska Medical Center have been vital in helping treat and fight the Ebola virus in the U.S., but now they’re taking steps to keep this country safer from infectious outbreaks in the future.

Nebraska Medicine and the University of Nebraska Medical Center have been vital in helping treat and fight the Ebola virus in the U.S., but now they’re taking steps to keep this country safer from infectious outbreaks in the future.

“Of course, we all know this is going to occur again. These problems are not going to go away around the world,” said Dr. Jeffrey Gold, chancellor at UNMC.

Gold said the school is putting forth two proposals. The first is what Gold calls a short-term plan that would address urgent needs. A partnership of UNMC and Emory University in Atlanta would start a national education program to train other U.S. institutions in setting up biocontainment units, expedite research of anti-viral medication and vaccines, and increase the number of patients Nebraska Medicine’s biocontainment unit can treat.

“So this would probably double our capacity,” said Gold.

Gold told a House subcommittee in Washington, D.C., Tuesday that teams from UNMC are already training other hospitals without any outside funding. But Gold is hoping for $40 million to $45 million in federal funding for this part of the project.

The second part is what Gold calls a longer-term proposal that would go toward a freestanding Health Security Center on the UNMC campus -- a project that would cost roughly $300 million. But Gold stresses that right now this proposal is in the very preliminary stages.

“A large academic health center that would educate, that would do a lot of the core research,” said Gold.

The center would also have a biocontainment unit that would be used for simulation and practice, and if needed, be used as an operational inpatient facility. But Gold knows this part of the proposal could be an uphill climb, especially with Congress in lame-duck session and many seats changing hands after the November elections.

“It's very clear that they understand the need for this. It's going to come down to their priorities and the overall political climate,” said Gold.